Students, professors and community members alike gathered at Santa Rosa Junior College on Monday to protest the state of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was scheduled to expire on Monday.
Led by Rafael Vazquez, former Sonoma State student and outreach coordinator for SRJC, the crowd followed a group of Aztec dancers down the streets to Fourth St., where the grouped rallied in the hundreds, chanting “si se puede!” and “education, not deportation!”
A voting registration booth was open as a several immigrants gave their testimony on how deportation negatively affected their lives, from sending family members away too causing them great distress. “[We are here] because of the civil war in the seventies, eighties and nineties,” said one speaker. After that respite, the march, containing around 400 people including Sonoma State students and faculty, continued to the federal building on Sonoma Ave., where the group presented their demands.
“If we are loud enough, maybe someone in [the federal building] will hear us,” Vazquez said to the crowd. The demands included amnesty for the families of all naturalized citizens and a increased cap to yearly issued visas, which were made into signs and planted in front of the building. As the Vasquez read to the crowd, a representative for Senator Dianne Feinstein injected remarks. “Are you done?” she asked, “Who’s going to make me listen?” The crowd responded with the chant “Vote her out!”
This coincided with Sonoma State and the Sociology Social Justice and Activism Club’s hosting of a series of events this week to spread awareness of what it means to be undocumented. The first event of UndocuWeek, as the group has named it, began Monday at Santa Rosa Junior College.
This activism is a response to President Donald J. Trump’s proposed DACA repeal, which the U.S. Supreme Court partially blocked on Feb. 26. Professor Mariana Garcia Martinez, advisor of the UndocuScholars coalition, said that this means that the roughly 800,000 people enrolled in the DACA program will be able to stay for now, but no new undocumented people will be able to apply. A further complication is a $495 fee required to renew DACA enrollments, money that can be hard to come by especially on a student’s budget. “The Supreme Court decision was a relief,” Martinez said. “But it’s just a Band-aid, and we need solutions.”
The CSU system says it will continue to support its undocumented students. CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White issued a statement following the Supreme Court decision, expressing his hope for a more permanent solution. He also encouraged all CSU students and employees enrolled in DACA to apply for renewal as soon as they could, if possible. His statement also linked to free legal services for DACA related cases, California Human Development being the most local. He also pointed to the Mission Asset Fund, which can provide interest free loans for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services fees, including the DACA fee.
UndocuWeek will continue on throughout this week. Tuesday, there will be an event held in the Cooperage discussing immigrant rights from 7-9 p.m. On Wednesday, a film screening of Sin Nombre will be held in Stevenson Hall 3008, starting at 6 p.m.. On Thursday, their will be a faculty panel on the topic of “social justice without borders” from 7 – 9 p.m. in the Cooperage. On Friday, “know your rights” training and a potluck will be held in Ballroom D of the the student center from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
